Pet owners commonly purchase furniture made specifically for their pets to sleep on. A common piece of furniture for cats is the cat hammock. A typical hammock consists of a piece of fabric attached to a support frame, allowing the cat to sit comfortably on top of the fabric portion. U.S. Pat. No. D431,695 to Burt (1999) discloses the common form of cat hammock design. This form of cat hammock requires a specific support frame to be built and utilized only by the cat hammock.
Similar cat hammock designs disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. D379,682 to Rafaat (1993) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,389 to Caldwell (1997) and U.S. Pat. No. D127,808 to Mcgillicuddy (1941) all use the same basic design of an integral support frame. All of these designs require unique frame parts that cannot be used anywhere but the cat hammock itself.
Similar designs disclosed by U.S. Pat No. D374,512 to Kiley (1996) and U.S. Pat. No. D294,752 to Palier (1988) utilize a built in shade but still utilize the specific, required, frame to support the fabric. While the shade will give a cat some degree of comfort by allowing it to hide from the added cover, the shade does not give total overhead protection.
All of these designs require the manufacturer to use extra resources and time in order produce a specific support frame for the hammock. This results in wasted materials for the manufacturer, additional shipping requirements for the retail establishments selling the item, and additional cost to the consumer.
Additionally, a specific volume of space in the consumer's home is taken up by the required frame of the hammock. In small apartment dwellings, it is undesirable to dedicate this space to pet furniture. Designs disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/648,732 from Edmonds (2009) and Ser. No. 12/141,576 from Howard (2008) attempt to address the space requirements of cat hammocks. One attaches the cat hammock to a window and the other utilizes a fold-able frame. However, both designs still require the use of support frames and the frames are a higher degree of complexity over the previously mentioned designs.
One design that is currently available for sale eliminates the built in frame of the cat hammock. This design however is dependent upon a specific style of table that utilizes support pegs for the fabric to drape over. This design replaces the specific integral frame of the hammock with a specific integral table design which does not aid in minimizing complexity or cost.
Generally, the prior art pet hammock designs are deficient in a number of respects:
(a) They require a specific frame be built for the function of the hammock. Additional manufacturing steps, materials, and costs are the result of this required frame.
(b) The required support frame results in a specific volume of space being taken up by the hammock. Valuable floor space in the owner's dwelling is taken up by the previous designs.
(c) In order to clean around and under the hammock, the owner must move the entire support frame resulting in unnecessary steps.
(d) The shipping cost of the hammock to consumers is unnecessarily high due to the large required support frame.
(e) Through the uncovered design of existing hammocks, the cat is exposed without any cover while sleeping. This may be undesirable to the cat and result in limited adoption of the hammock and buyer's remorse for the consumer.